When North Texas secured the 2014 Final Four, it wasn’t hard to imagine eye-rolling in traditional basketball hotbeds such as New York, Kentucky, North Carolina and Indiana.

North Texas? That’s football country. Its main hoops claim to fame, the Mavericks’ 2011 NBA title, largely was made possible by German import Dirk Nowitzki.

For decades, all of Texas deservedly was perceived as basketball backwoods. Seven NBA titles and nine Finals appearances in the past 20 years by the state’s three franchises have brought prestige, but Texas rather pathetically has produced only one NCAA Division I basketball champion in 75 years.

It isn’t for lack of homegrown talent, though. With the basketball spotlight shining on North Texas this week, it seemed a fitting time to come up with an all-time team of area players produced to date.

Until the 2000s, it would have been difficult to assemble a brag-worthy fantasy pickup game of local products. Now, though, it’s possible to list fairly formidable first, second and third teams, with room for debate about which players belongs where and which standouts were left out.

The talent boom’s origin traces to the mid-1980s, when the University Interscholastic League finally joined most other states in allowing Texas high school players to participate in summer camps and leagues.

From North Texas came a trickle of elite prospects in the late ’80s and early ’90s, then it became a babbling brook and in recent years a steady stream, though the prevailing currents send most blue-chippers to out-of-state schools.

Thus of the 15 players who comprise the all-time first, second and third teams, seven were drafted into the NBA in the 1990s and 2000s. Four are still playing.

NBA experience

As for criteria, we decided that the players didn’t have to be born in Texas, but had to be products of area high schools and had to have at least played in the NBA.

Each player’s high school, college and pro accomplishments were taken into account, with college weighing more than high school, pro more than college.

Dennis Rodman barely played at South Oak Cliff; became a janitor at D/FW International Airport; hit a growth spurt and played one year at Cooke County before flunking out; became a three-time NAIA All-American at Southeastern Oklahoma State; then was an integral part of five NBA title teams in 14 seasons.

Rodman is one of only three male players enshrined as individuals to the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame (’66 NCAA champion Texas Western went in as a team) who are products of Texas high schools. Houston Sterling’s Clyde Drexler and Houston Davis’ Slater Martin are the others. In our estimation, that makes Rodman an all-time North Texas first-teamer.

Ira Terrell led Roosevelt to the 1972 state title, scoring a state-tournament 4A (now 5A) record 45 points in a storied 111-109 semifinal win over Houston Wheatley. He was a standout at SMU, averaging 22.6 points and 13.4 rebounds as a senior.

Terrell, though, played only two NBA seasons, averaging 7.0 points and 4.2 rebounds. To our way of thinking, he adds up as all-time North Texas third-teamer.

Also affecting Terrell’s ranking is the fact he played forward. While places such as New York, Chicago and California’s Bay Area are known for producing great point guards, Dallas is an incubator of forwards.

Skyline’s Larry Johnson and Bryan Adams’ Kenyon Martin were Naismith Players of the Year — Johnson at UNLV in 1991; Martin at Cincinnati in 2000. Both were No. 1 overall draft picks.

LaMarcus Aldridge (Seagoville), Dave Stallworth (Madison) and Chris Bosh (Lincoln) were drafted, respectively, Nos. 2, 3 and 4 overall as forwards coming out of college. Bosh, though, is the first-team center on our All-North Texas team, because that is the position he primarily plays for the two-time reigning NBA champion Miami Heat.

Younger-generation fans might not be familiar with Stallworth. He attended high school before integration, graduating from all-black Madison in 1961 at a time when Southwest Conference athletic teams had yet to integrate.

So Stallworth went to Wichita State, where he forged a career 24.2-point scoring average and was a consensus All-American in 1964. It would take 26 years for Texas to produce its next consensus All-American, Johnson. Stallworth also won a championship with the 1969-70 Knicks, although the effects of a heart attack cut short his NBA career at eight seasons.

Room for more

Who knows? Perhaps someday a couple of locally produced forwards whose teams advanced deep into this year’s tournament, Kentucky’s Julius Randle and Baylor’s Isaiah Austin, will play their way onto North Texas’ all-time team. Austin’s Bears were knocked out in the Sweet 16, and Randle’s Wildcats play Michigan on Sunday for the right to advance to the Final Four

In that sense, the team is fluid. Some might say it is light on premier guards, which might give Prime Prep product and SMU signee Emmanuel Mudiay, the nation’s top-rated point guard prospect, a chance to earn a spot.

Either way, the current team is plenty accomplished. It has ’92 NBA Rookie of the Year Johnson, two-time Defensive Player of the Year Rodman, two-time Sixth Man of the Year Ricky Pierce and the most recent player to lead Division I in scoring and rebounding (Kurt Thomas in 1994-95).

There are three U.S. Olympic team members: Bosh, The Colony’s Deron Williams and Woodrow Wilson’s Alton Lister. Lister’s 1980 Olympic squad didn’t get to play in the Moscow Olympics because of the U.S. boycott.

Our choice for North Texas’ all-time best player won’t be popular among some Mavericks fans, but this guy’s credential simply can’t be overlooked.

He was Texas’ Mr. Basketball his senior year of high school, led his team to a 40-0 record and the mythical national title, was Atlantic Coast Conference Rookie of the Year in his only season of college, is a nine-time NBA All-Star, has won two championships and has averaged 19.3 points and 9.2 rebounds in 11 seasons.